Baltimore

Catonsville...

• is a southwestern suburb of Baltimore.  Baltimore is immediately to its east, Gwynn Oak and Windsor Mill (areas also known as Woodlawn) are to its north, Ellicott City is to its west, and Arbutus and UMBC are to its south.
• was originally the home of Native Americans of the Piscataway tribe, who had a trading route, the Piscataway Trail, running through the area.
• is named for Richard Caton, originally from England, who surveyed and developed much of the land which comprises present-day Catonsville, in the 1780s.  His father-in-law was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and at one time the wealthiest person in Maryland.
• was settled by Richard Caton and his wife, Mary "Polly" Carroll, in 1787, when they built a house on the site.  The site (roughly 25 saquare miles) was named Catonsville in 1810.
• has a branch of the Baltimore County Public Library on the site where the Caton house stood, at Frederick Road and Beaumont Avenue.
• had a population of 39,820 in the census of 2000, but at one time it was as high as 54,000 when it was much larger in land area.
• is 14 square miles in area, but it used to be close to 40 square miles.  The eastern portion was annexed by the city of Baltimore in 1910, and the southern portion was given to Elkridge in the 1980s (for the 21075 ZIP Code).
• has an elevation of 479 feet at its center (Frederick Rd. at Ingleside/Bloomsbury), but elevation is as high as 538 feet (near intersection of Baltimore National Pike at N. Rolling Road) and as low as 118 feet (south boundary at Patapsco River).  The terrain is generally moderately hilly.  Catonsville is situaied right on the fall line of the Piedmont Plateau, an area where waterfalls and rapids occur in rivers.
• is known as "Music City Maryland" because it has at least eight music stores.
• has wonderful views of Baltimore obtainable from portions of Bloomsbury Avenue along Parr's Ridge.
• More Catonsville facts to come...